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Arts
The Daily Aztec
Oct. 13 - 19, 2021 EDITOR: Ryan Hardison • arts@thedailyaztec.com
Latinx chef showcases authentic Mexican dishes on Instagram Live By Lucelis Martinez STAFF WRITER
San Diego State’s Latinx Student Union (LSU) hosted a cultura en la cocina event on Instagram Live on Friday, Oct. 8. According to their official page, the LSU addresses the scarcity of Latinxassimilated organizations, community, and representation on SDSU’s campus and established in the fall of 2020. “Cultura en la cocina” is a virtual event hosted by LSU, which consisted of chef Claudette Zepeda and LSU members cooking a traditional Mexican dish called Carne en su jugo. According to her personal website, Zepeda is a San-Diego based chef known for her bold approaches to regional Mexican cuisine. She also has a son attending SDSU. During the event, she explained the origins of Carne en su jugo. The direct translation is “meat in its juice” but Zepeda said the translation is not as appealing in English. “Omg my mom used to make this all the time,” an anonymous viewer wrote in the Instagram chat box. The dish comes from Jalisco, from the
Garibaldi family, according to Zepeda. In 2015, Vice released an article about how the Garibaldis’ chain of restaurants, Karne Garibaldi, holds the Guiness World Record for the fastest ever food service. According to the article, the waiters lay out a full menu in 13.5 seconds. The article says that carne en su jo is also a regional specialty native to Guadalajara and that it’s the only main course on the menu. According to Zepeda, the dish cures both heartbreaks and hangovers. Throughout the Instagram livestream, Zepeda shared personal stories and answered questions from LSU members on the other end of the conversation. Zepeda said she got her start in the culinary world at an early age since her aunt had a restaurant. At first, Zepeda said she wanted to be a lawyer. However she grew to love cooking more. Growing up, she would steal her mother’s pot because she was convinced that it somehow made all her mother’s recipes come out better. This laid the foundation for her future career. While answering a question about working within a male-dominated industry, Zepeda mentioned that she takes power in
her femininity as she’s recognized by her Oaxacan earrings and red lips. Zepeda also said she learned how to stand on her own in the industry. “I made very specific strategic moves for who I wanted to work with,” Zepeda said. She said she only likes working with people she respects and that she can feel the difference between the right tribe and the wrong tribe. Zepeda has a tattoo alluding to her nickname in Mexico, which is “Mama Bear.” She was asked about how being a young mother affected her and her life. Zepeda talked about having multiple jobs including one cashing checks, her role as a line cook for a restaurant. Although she would’ve been living on the street, she knew she had to make sure her children were okay. Having people, like her grandma and mom, in her corner helped. Zepeda has participated in Top Chef season 5 and Top Chef Mexico. Whenever she has upcoming projects she consults it with her family and they tell her that the months she’ll be away are only three months out of their lives. Challenging herself to confront those challenges made her stronger. “I came out a better person,” said Zepeda.
Screenshot courtesy of Claudette Zepeda’s Instagram
The host of the Instagram live enjoys a local cuisine.
As they talked, Zepeda told the LSU to babysit their food as it cooked. Zepeda focuses on flavors and lets her heritage shine through all she does. “If it’s a brown dish, let it be a brown dish.” Students can keep up to date with LCU events by following their official instagram.
Student musician plays first live show on campus By Lucelis Martinez STAFF WRITER
Joaquin Paez performed 11 original songs at the second Nooner event of the fall 2021 semester. The Aztec Student Union hosted the event on Oct.8. According to the official website, Nooner is an opportunity for people on campus to hear a local artist for an hour, in the Aztec Student Union. Paez is a junior at San Diego State, majoring in psychology. He had gone to the nooner performances during his freshman year and said he was always jealous of the performers but unsure on how to perform. “I was at a party the other day and I met Lindsay,” said Paez. Lindsay Scholbrock, the Music and Entertainment Chair for the Aztec Student Union. A conversation emerged where Paez showed Scholbrock his music and she showed support for it before they got onto the topic of the Nooner series. Paez then found out Scholbrock ran the music events at SDSU. Paez said he comes from Ecuadorian heritage and lived in New Jersey before coming to SDSU. He has two songs up on his verified Spotify account. He performed both of these songs at the Nooner. One of the songs,“Prescription Medicine,” generated a lot of audience feedback. “And are we enough to save each other? Enough to save ourselves,” Paez sings in “Prescription Medicine.” “I know we’re broken, but sleep now I’ll call you in the morning. The phone ring reminds me we’re still breathing and your voice is like prescription medicine.” Paez said the song was inspired by a relationship he had with a girl named Bella, which is the name of his other song on Spotify. “It’s about us both being in a very dark place, and finding hope with each other and like only with each other,” said Paez. Both “Prescription Medicine” and “Bella” make lyrical references to pills. Paez said this is both a metaphor for their love, but also an allusion to the love-hate relationship he has with his depression and
Photo by Cristina Lombardo
he feels like his Spotify is outdated since he has changed in many ways recently. He’s also been inspired by his time in quarantine. “They’re all very ruminative, like I’m having a conversation with myself in my head,” said Paez, “And that’s one thing I like about songwriting is I can talk to myself or about myself.” Paez had friends in the front row, listening in on his performance. Andrew Valencia, a junior majoring in biology, was amongst them. “I was walking by the Union and I saw the billboard of him come up,” Valencia said, “It was so dope because it looked so professional and gave him a lot of attention.” Valencia said he had chills and that it was nice to see Paez show so much passion. Bryce Mendoza is a third year financing major, who was in charge of mixing the sound for Paez during the event.
He said he felt the event went well. “It was the first event I had been able to run for a while so that was exciting,” Mendoza said. Paez said he felt relieved after his performance, because he was really nervous beforehand. “I’m glad I didn’t mess up too bad,” Paez said. Paez was happy about the crowd support. Out of the 11 songs he performed, he felt “Bella” was the best received. He was also excited to perform an unreleased song at the end of his performance. “I have that bridge where I haven’t really done something as intense before so I enjoyed that one,” Paez said. Paez ended his performance with a resounding message. “Thank you so f****** much to everyone that came,and I’m glad people are willing to listen to my s***,” Paez said.
Nooner check-in poster promoting Joaquin Paez.
anxiety medication. “I knew I had chemical imbalances in my brain that I needed to take care of,” said Paez, “A lot of my songwriting reflected this desire for medicine or like an external form of help and then, once I did get on medication it was a big war for me in my head kind of like hating medication and also being grateful that it’s kind of helping me.” Paez said he likes to reflect his internal struggles in his songs. “Emotional pain is 100% my biggest inspiration,” said Paez. The independent artist started learning how to play the guitar in the eighth grade, but he said he didn’t start taking it seriously until his sophomore year of high school. “When I discovered songwriting, I became addicted to it,” said Paez. “I wanted to write about everything that I was going through.” For Paez, that trend has continued. He was a part of Aztec Music Group during his first year at SDSU and was inspired by artists like Jeremy Zucker. Music is a therapeutic process for Paez, and he said
Photo by Cristina Lombardo
Paez performed 11 songs during his Nooner set and he felt his song “Bella” was recieved best.
